Sunday, August 31, 2008

Historic African-American Women at the DNC

I just heard a great piece by On the Media (itself a great show) interviewing Melissa Harris-Lacewell, a Princeton University professor of African-American studies. Harris-Lacewell talks not just about how race was a surprising non-issue at the Democratic National Convention this year, but specifically about the female African-Americans who played significant roles in Conventions past.

They include Fannie Lou Hamer, a sharecropper from Mississippi, who protested her state's all-White delegation; Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American woman to run as a candidate for President in a major political party; and Barbara Jordan, the first African-American congresswoman from Texas, who delivered a keynote address in 1976.

It's a great, thoughtful piece with audio from some of these astounding orators. Go here for the complete audio (with a transcript coming Monday) or check out Harris-Lacewell's article in The Nation.